Watching Foxwoods Rise

In 1635, Roger Williams left the all-Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded a religious-tolerant colony that he called Providence, which later became the capital of Rhode Island (where I spent the first 17 years of my life). In Roger Williams' day, the most powerful Indian tribe in the lands between Providence and New York was the Pequot, led by their "Great Chief," Sassacus, who held dominion over 26 subordinate chiefs in an area that is now Connecticut and Long Island. A few years earlier, because of a dispute with Chief Sassacus, a chief by the name of Uncas and his followers had left the Pequot lands and migrated into the interior woodlands (near what is now Hartford) and became the Mohegans. James Fenimore Cooper would use those names in his famous novel.



Due to several violent incidents in which it is not clear who was right or wrong, Roger Williams and Chief Uncas requested military help. In 1637, British troops attacked and burned the main Pequot Indian village located near the Mystic River (in what is now Connecticut near Rhode Island) and killed about 600 inhabitants. About 70 Pequot took refuge with the Narragansett Indians (in Rhode island), while others canoed over to Long Island. Chief Sassacus and about 30 other Pequot took refuge with the Mohawks. But the Mohawks killed them all and sent their scalps to the British.



Chief Uncas claimed, and was granted, the Pequot lands for the Mohegans. But in the 1655 amnesty, surviving Pequot were allowed to return to their former villages at Mashantuxet near the Mystic River. According to an anthropological article by Prince and Speck (1903), there were about 1,500 Mashantucket Pequot in 1674, 140 in 1762, and only about 50 in 1832. Much of the Mashantucket Pequot 989-acre reservation was illegally seized and sold in the 1850s.



In 1980, when I was a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, our Indian Rights Section and the Indian Rights Association were supporting a Mashantucket Pequot suit to regain their lands. In the early 1990s, I visited my mother in Narragansett, Rhode Island (about a half-hour drive from Foxwoods), and heard reports about how much her friends enjoyed the new Indian bingo parlor in Connecticut. Several years later, I heard about the Bank of Malaysia loaning millions of dollars to expand the Ledyard, Connecticut, Indian bingo operation into a casino (after a New York bank had unwisely declined).



I was there at 10:20 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15, 1992, to cover the story when Foxwoods first opened its doors, "revealing its impressive four-story atrium, marble floors and 30-foot-high indoor waterfall. Waitresses in tasteful aqua or pink minidresses wore a single feather in their hair." Within an hour after the opening, all 175 casino tables and all 44 poker tables were full. Right from the start, it was clear that Foxwoods was going to be a great success.



In the mid-'90s, when casino poker was often relegated to backrooms and second-class space, Foxwoods poker was relocated to a large downstairs room. A few years later, Foxwoods management, which has a great track record of being right, brought poker back upstairs to its present prominent location. Note that the old "movie image" of poker has recently been supplanted by a prestigious and glamorous new image, which requires a "full-service casino" to feature poker (aka "the lesson of Caesars"). So, although the present worldwide proliferation of poker has been attributed mainly to television and the Internet, the overall image of poker has also been heightened by Foxwoods' and Donald Trump's foresight regarding poker room emphasis and prime location.



Foxwoods' World Poker Finals was one of the first big major poker tournaments, years before the World Poker Tour existed. In November 1997, I went up to Foxwoods to play in one of the World Poker Finals events. I found myself the chip leader as we started final-table play (see my columns in Card Player, Jan 9, 1998 and Jan 23, 1998). I wrote about a decisive hand in which a young Daniel Negreanu made a set with his pocket fives on the river against me and then went on to one of his first major tournament wins (note that Danny was the Card Player 2004 Player of the Year).



This November, Foxwoods will host another World Poker Finals that will include a televised World Poker Tour event. In light of the current phenomenal growth in poker popularity (for example, this year's World Series of Poker main event had about twice as many entrants as last year), the 2005 Foxwoods World Poker Finals should easily break the attendance records it set last year.



Foxwoods has continually expanded over the past dozen years and now has great entertainment facilities (many of which my teenage kids consider "the coolest"), fashionable shops, gourmet restaurants, and plush hotels. The tribal fathers have used their affluence very wisely, contributing millions to charity, education, and preservation of Indian cultural values.



I once wrote, "With almost tearful irony, the Mashantucket Pequot Indians – who were mistreated for centuries – have greatly aided the state's ailing economy and also have revived a once-proud Connecticut shipbuilding tradition." Foxwoods has grown so much that it now has become the largest casino in the world – quite a storybook comeback for the Pequot. The Great Chief Sassacus would be pleased.